Lionel Messi Wins Ballond'Or

 

Lionel Messi won the 2015 Ballon d'Or , the award which had become an annual two-horse race since 2011,  nobody other than Messi or Ronaldo has finished in the top two with Messi winning on five occasions and Cristiano Ronaldo three times.

The Argentine has now scooped the award for a record of five times, beating Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona team-mate Neymar to the game's most prestigious individual award.

The 28 year old helped Barcelona to an historic treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League in a 2014-15 season in which he netted 58 goals in all competitions while Ronaldo racked up a career-high 61 goals in all competitions by the end of the 2014-15 season, he did not get his hands on any major silverware - unlike Messi and Neymar, who both netted 10 times (the same amount as Ronaldo) in firing Barca to Champions League glory.

Messi polled 41.33 per cent of the vote, ahead of Ronaldo (27.76 per cent) and Neymar (7.86 per cent).

Messi's five award wins puts him well clear at the top of the list of Ballon d'Or victors. No other player has won more than three titles, an accomplishment that has been achieved by Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Cristiano Ronaldo and Marco van Basten

Below are list of the award winners in full.

FIFA Men's World Player of the Year: Lionel Messi

FIFA Women's World Player of the year : Carli Lloyd

FIFA World Coach of the year (Men): Luis Enrique

FIFA World Coach of the year (Women): Jill Ellis

FIFA Puskas Award: Wendell Lira

FIFA Fair play award: Gerald Asamoah

FIFA/FIFPro World XI: Manuel Neuer; Thiago Silva, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves; Andres Iniesta, Luka Modric, Paul Pogba; Lionel Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo